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Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

tea party

Tea hee hee!!

A few weeks ago, post-primary Wednesday morning found gleeful Democrats celebrating the double-digit loss of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA).

Last night there was another set of primary elections, most notably in Mississippi where there was a runoff between incumbent GOP Senator Thadd Cochran and tea party challenger state Senator Chris McDaniel.

Early in the evening, BWD spoke for me:

But the result was much better than expected … Cochran won, unleashing the hounds of hell, specifically, an angry tea party activist named Amy Kremer:

@amykremer If Cochran wins this #mssen race, the GOP is done. They teamed up with Dems to steal a race. Kiss the base goodbye.

@amykremer

Sad that GOP establishment has to reach out to the Dems to help keep the Barbour lobbying business profitable. That’s politics ppl. #mssen

Base kissing? Very unsanitary. But the idea of angry Republicans boycotting the November election and opening the door to a Democratic pickup? Please proceed, tea partiers, please proceed.

And a bonus! The former vice presidential candidate and half-term governor of Alaska will not stand for this …

More below …

“… you knew I was a snake”

Tuesday night, the tea party wing of the Republican Party turned on one of their own. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) lost his primary to Dave Brat, a professor who teaches Ayn Randian economics to college students. Brat spent $122,000 to Cantor’s $5 million.  

Now she clutched him to her bosom, “You’re so beautiful,” she cried

“But if I hadn’t brought you in by now you might have died”

Now she stroked his pretty skin and then she kissed and held him tight

But instead of saying thanks, that snake gave her a vicious bite

[chorus]

“I saved you,” cried that woman

“And you’ve bit me even, why?

You know your bite is poisonous and now I’m going to die”

“Oh shut up, silly woman,” said the reptile with a grin

“You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in

Tweets …

@imillhiser: “The Tea Party’s been a tremendously positive input, I think… certainly for our party, you see the benefit.” -Eric Cantor, Nov. 10, 2010

@JuddLegum: Lesson GOP will take from Cantor’s loss: Kill immigration reform. Real lesson: No matter how much you pander to Tea Party, it’s never enough

@DanaHoule: This shows a resurgence of the Republican establ…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

@lizzwinstead: ERIC CANTOR IS TOO LIBERAL FOR THE REPUBLICANS IN VIRGINIA! #murica #YourPartyIsCurdled

The Republicans made a deal with the devil and released the hounds of hell … who are biting them in the hinder.

In the News: Texas Tea Wrecks?

Found on the Internets …



A series of tubes filled with enormous amounts of material

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Tea Party Might Just Fizzle In Ted Cruz’s Texas

For Texas tea partiers, Tuesday’s primary might just be a grim day. Tea party candidates running in federal elections this cycle have struggled to get a foothold in the Lone Star state as the movement turns five.

The best example of the fizzle is one-time conservative favorite Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX), who’s run such an incompetent campaign against Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) that even other tea party groups have turned against him.

Maybe arming fetuses is not as popular as Stockman thought it would be?

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Rudderless Tea Party Searches For Meaning Five Years On

WASHINGTON: Several hundred die-hard Tea Party activists Thursday found themselves sandwiched between a much larger convention of chiropractors and the annual fly-in lobbying convention of the National Treasury Employees Union.

Held at a Washington Hyatt, the fifth anniversary event for the Tea Party Patriots was a far cry from the halcyon days of 2009 when tens of thousands of conservatives descended on Washington for a Tea Party rally.

But more than sheer numbers was missing from Thursday’s event: The day lacked either a single leader or issue to rally around. While Obamacare may have birthed the movement, it no longer motivates the Tea Party, if Thursday’s lineup was any evidence.[…]

Bachmann used her off the cuff speech to hit everything from the rise of China to the budget. Bachmann, who will retire at the end of this year, even warned the movement to not “take your marbles and go home” simply because of their 2012 electoral defeat.

Rep. Steve King, one of the early adopters of the Tea Party mantle, took a more philosophical approach, arguing the movement is about securing the fundamentals of Western culture like “liberty” and “free markets.” […]

Indeed, the only thread that ran through the day was the idea that the Tea Party can still wield power in the next election. At one point a Tea Party Patriots official took the stage to announce the group had raised more than $1.1 million over the last 10 days, announcing, “Let’s show those establishment people and the permanent political class we mean business and we don’t need their money, ’cause we gots our own!”

Bachmann’s calls for the gavel of Harry Reid got polite applause, but the biggest cheers – and the fact that Republicans should be most concerned about – came when Rep. Tim Huelskamp called for the forcible end to Speaker John Boehner’s leadership.

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More …

Building our own wave.

In 2009, Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell were the beneficiaries of the tea party anger purchased with corporate money, promoted by Fox News and organized by FreedomWorks and the Dick Armey in the Summer of 2009.

Christie of New Jersey and McDonnell of Virginia in November 2009 … Scott Brown of Massachusetts in March 2010 … and then the tea party wave election in November 2010 that appeared to sweep away our country’s common sense and which set up gerrymandered Republican majorities in statehouses across the country.

Today’s polls seem to indicate that we have a good chance to turn the tide in Virginia but not much hope in New Jersey where Gov. Chris Christie (R) appears to be a shoo-in for re-election.  

“America Held Hostage” – Tea Party Anarchists Vote to Shut Down U. S. Government



Republican House of Representatives pulls the pin.

GOP House Passes Bill To Delay Obamacare As Gov’t Shutdown Nears

Saturday [September 28] around midnight, the GOP-led House voted to pass three amendments to the continuing resolution which would repeal Obamacare’s medical device tax (248-174), delay the law by one year (231-192) and make sure U.S. troops are paid (423-0). The stopgap bill would keep the government funded through Dec. 15.

At the last minute, party leaders decided to add a special “conscience clause” delaying for one year an Obamacare rule that non-church employer health plans cover contraception without co-pays for female employees.

A senior Senate Democratic aide said it was “highly unlikely” that the Senate would return on Sunday. The White House also issued a statement on Saturday saying that the president would veto the the GOP’s bill. House Democrats were furious with their Republican colleagues.

The House adjourned until Monday at 10am. No Sunday sessions are planned for either house of Congress.

Too Little, Too Late: Regrets Of A Tea Party “Patriot”

Disclaimer: This is purely hypothetical. A true Tea Party “Patriot” would never apologize; they’d simply reload. They’d also have more typographical and grammatical errors if they did write anything. Still…

February 12, 2013

Dear Joanie,

Since we haven’t talked in so long, I was shocked to see you sitting in the very back of the church at Dad’s funeral last week. I wanted to see you, to hold you, to tell you so much, but by the time I got through the crowd, you were gone.  

After that last argument when you walked out after we thanked Fox News in our Thanksgiving prayer, I wasn’t sure I would ever see you and Jamal and the kids again. I know you probably still hate me and you probably don’t ever want to talk to me again, but please at least read this letter before you decide.

Now, with everything that’s happened, I can see why you did what you did. I am so sorry, more sorry than you will ever know, that I got involved with those Tea Party people. They seemed so patriotic. It was like they “got it”. Less taxes? Who wouldn’t want that? Get the government out of our lives? Well, at first I was kind of uneasy about that, with Dad working in the defense industry, but it turns out a bunch of them were in the same sort of situation or on Social Security or disability, and it didn’t seem like it was a problem for them.  

We were all just so worried that the country was going to hell in a handbasket, with all those people out of work and the government just spending and spending and spending. It was like people like us – good upstanding people who worked hard and paid our taxes just kept losing ground to people who were… well, you know.

The people over on Fox were the only ones who made sense out of it. Your Dad was the one who first started watching them he was home from work when he hurt his back. After I started watching it, I just got hooked. Glenn Beck was his favorite. He was the only person smart enough to figure out how all this politics and money and religion stuff was connected, and brave enough to say it. It’s too bad somebody silenced him. Hannity and O’Reilly and the others were okay, though, and after a while, we left the TV on Fox all the time.  

When you screamed at us that “you love Fox more than you love me and the kids!”, I am ashamed to say that you might have been right. I DO love you and Jamal and the kids (and Dad loved you guys too), but you were back east and we hardly ever saw you. I know it sounds stupid now, but Fox was our family.  

GOPasaur Extinction Update: More Fossil Follies from Griftasaurus Karlroveii

As reported in the New York Times and other reputable sources – and widely mocked elsewhere – Griftasaurus Karlroveii has concocted yet another plan to stave off extinction… or at least make some money off it if it’s really unavoidavle. In a party where dinosaur-on-dinosaur violence has reached levels worthy of paleo-pay-per-view coverage, the bespectacled behemoth believes that he has found the Secret of Eternal Relevance. As always, it involves money. Other people’s money, obviously.

His latest Life Extension scheme involves establishment of the Conservative Victory Party. While that sounds dreadfully bland, rest assured, blood will spill, and carnage will result. Don’t touch that dial! First on the CVP’s hit list? The witless Baggasaurs whose moronic Mesozoic meddling has already cost the GOPasaurs some key seats in the House and Senate. Like a clown car filled with velociraptors on crack, the Baggasaurs provided ample amusement for those of us on the other side of the aisle, but have been an unending torment for their supposed allies.

Spawned by the evil genius and deep pockets of the Kochasaurs and a few other one-percenters with more free time and money than brains, the Baggasaurs were foisted on the American public as a true grass-roots Paleo-phenomenon. Easily identified by their curious headgear, poorly-spelled signs, and angry vocalizations, the Baggasaurs played their parts to perfection. Their walnut-sized brains ensured that they would never discern that they were simply “extras” in the Greatest Story Never Told, and that despite their daily trips to the mailbox, their checks would never arrive.

Still, when measured in terms of damage done versus IQ points, the Baggasaurs will leave a dent in the fossil record. In retrospect, their Reign of Error may represent the Beginning of the End for GOPasaurs. Some analysts surmise that G. karlroveii is very much in agreement with this view, but clearly not above using it to advance his own objectives. Follow along below the coprolite horizon for more…  

The Devouring

The campaign for the Republican presidential nomination has entered a new phase and it is beginning to look like support for Romney and Gingrich aligns with the deepening division between “establishment” Republicans and the insurgent Tea Party movement.  We have seen Tea Party support crystallise around Gingrich, even though he is an “imperfect vessel,” largely because they are even more unwilling to support the mainstream candidate.  

The Republican party is experiencing an insurgency among the same disaffected cohorts they had enlisted in their campaigns against Obama and it’s causing a degree of panic within their ranks evident in the sheer volume of negative campaigning they have deployed, most recently in the Florida primary, where their advertising buy is approaching $13.8 million; not to mention the unprecedented, co-ordinated public attacks on Gingrich’s candidacy by former and current legislative Republicans.  Consider the reaction from the self-appointed spokeswoman of the Tea Party movement, Sarah Palin:


What we saw with this ridiculous opposition dump on Newt was nothing short of Stalin-esque rewriting of history. It was Alinsky tactics at their worst.

But this whole thing isn’t really about Newt Gingrich vs. Mitt Romney. It is about the GOP establishment vs. the Tea Party grassroots and independent Americans who are sick of the politics of personal destruction used now by both parties’ operatives with a complicit media egging it on. In fact, the establishment has been just as dismissive of Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. Newt is an imperfect vessel for Tea Party support, but in South Carolina the Tea Party chose to get behind him instead of the old guard’s choice. In response, the GOP establishment voices denounced South Carolinian voters with the same vitriol we usually see from the left when they spew hatred at everyday Americans “bitterly clinging” to their faith and their Second Amendment rights. The Tea Party was once again told to sit down and shut up and listen to the “wisdom” of their betters.

Sarah Palin – Cannibals in GOP Establishment Employ Tactics of the Left Facebook 27 Jan 12

That Palin would identify the GOP establishment as the opposition and characterise their behaviour as “cannibalism” suggests the famous aphorism on the French revolution:


La révolution dévore ses enfants.

Georg Büchner, Danton’s Death, Act I (1835)

The revolution, like Saturn, devours its own children.  And Republicans are setting themselves up for an inevitable banquet on Newt and his supporters; a recipe for a disastrous nomination fight entirely of their own making and a Tea Party cohort even angrier at them than Obama, if such a thing is possible.  The challenge for Democrats is to stand back and let them have it out, for now.  They seem to be making an excellent job of it so far.

Open Horserace Thread: Cain Wins P5 Straw Poll

Whoops.  It has been a very tough week for the GOP, desperately seeking consensus on issues of ideology and electability while rounding the first turn in their contest to select a presidential nominee.  And then it got stunningly worse after the collapse of their most recent favourite, Rick Perry, in the recent Orlando debate.  The conservative establishment quickly turned on him with the bitterness of a disappointed lover.  Perry’s back in the pack if not out altogether.

The Florida GOP straw poll results are in and it is pretty hard to fathom:

   Herman Cain: 37.11%

   Rick Perry: 15.43%

   Mitt Romney: 14%

   Rick Santorum: 10.88%

   Ron Paul: 10.39%

   Newt Gingrich: 8.43%

   Jon Huntsman: 2.26%

   Michele Bachmann: 1.51%

That’s a nasty spanking for Perry, who invested heavily in this poll, in a must-win state for him.  And while Romney has retained fund-raising momentum and blunted Perry’s brief rise in the give-and-take of recent weeks it is also clear that his “front-runner” status is limited by a fairly low ceiling of support among evangelicals and Tea Partiers.  Michele Bachmann’s star has fallen to new lows since her “fifteen-minutes” following her Ames straw poll win.

So, Bachmann clobbers Pawlenty, Perry clobbers Bachmann, Romney smothers Perry and the remaining cast of characters just can’t break through.  This recent upset by Cain seems more of a vote of no confidence in Perry than a sign of real resurgence for the pizza mogul, whose lack of foreign policy nous and odd tax reform proposals tend to disqualify him as a serious national candidate.

Labor Day well gone and the GOP is still looking for an electoral saviour?  It’s getting late folks.  Republicans are in serious trouble and they know it.  Pass the popcorn.

Pre-debate Horserace Open Thread

The starters have left the gate and they’re off.  Michele “Speaks From God” Bachmann stirred the punters briefly with her Ames Straw Poll victory but was promptly sasquatched by good ol’ Rick Perry’s cannonball entrance.  Huntsman morphed into the sane alternative and subsists on earned media; tells Tea Party, “Bite me” but the tea leaves say “Not this time.”

Newt does well in debates but seems headed to repeat Fred Thompson’s performance art experiment while Rudy won’t commit ’till after the 9/11 observances free him for other duties.  Chris “Get off the damn beach” Christie is yet to be called.  And Sarah, bless her grifter heart, is left to pimp her PAC.

Romney trims his sails and tries to stay upwind of the scrum but puts in an appearance to kiss De Mint’s ring which Perry unexpectedly “misses” due to prior engagements; prayers notwithstanding.

Paul gets his day in the media but fails to inspire.  Cain is unable.  Santorum wanders deeper into postmodern ultraconservative irrelevance.  For all the values sanctity and financial probity demanded and promised by candidates for this “mother of all GOP nominations” the big question remains, “Who’s in the money?”

Debate countdown here.  Or submit a “yes/no” question via Twitter with hashtag #reagandebate (as if.)

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